Christmas at the Avengers tower
by skyfallat221b
Summary: Christmas is upon us, and everybody is feeling merry and happy. Except the Black Widow and the Hawk, who don't want to take part in the secret Santa and other celebration games Pepper has planned for the Avengers...


_1150~ words, unbetad. Request by Anon on tumblr :)_  
_I have no idea what this is, dear, and it's just a general fluffy thing. _  
_Characters: Pepper Potts, Tony Stark, Betty Ross, Bruce Banner, Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, Thor._ **Hope you like it, sweetie **

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Snow was falling all over New York city, and everybody was driving around trying to find the gifts they needed for friends and family. The usual frost and icing was causing issues with public transport, and ice on the roads was making it difficult to get anywhere unless you felt courageous and brave enough to walk out. They were playing Christmas music all over the loudspeakers, in shops, in the street, and even on the radio. Nobody was left out of the mood, not with blinking lights everywhere, and the scent of sweets and honey all over the place.

At the Avengers' tower, it was no different. Pepper had managed to convince Tony to let her and Betty take care of the decorations. Pepper used to do little things for Tony when they lived in Malibu, but in the tower in New York, it was a two person job, and Betty was going to be there all of Christmas anyway, now that it had been decided that the Avengers were going to spend the holiday together.

There was a Christmas tree on each floor – Pepper had made sure of it, with colours matching the suits of the Avenger who was living on the floor. Tony's had gold and red, Bruce's had green and purple, Thor's had blue and red, Clint's had silver and purple (because black didn't look good on a Christmas tree, Pepper had explained), Natasha's had silver and red, and Steve's was blue and silver.

The one on the main floor, was bigger, and more colourful than all the other ones. It was a little bit of everything, but it looked good, with the gold overshadowing all the other colours she'd chosen for the tree. Tony had volunteered to use the suit to put on the star at the top of the tree, but Betty had insisted on using a ladder, the old fashioned way.

It didn't take long before the Christmas tree was cosily fitted with different presents, of different shapes and sizes. Steve was enjoying the mood, able to relate to something for real (and, he would, every now and then, ask JARVIS to play « Zat you, Santa Claus ? » by Louis Armstrong, just because he loved the old fashioned tune of the song.

The only two people who weren't all too happy about the entire celebration, were Clint and Natasha. Pepper still thought about it a lot, because when she'd been undercover as Natalie Rushman, she'd been more than happy to help out for Christmas at Tony's place, but now, she was just distant, and would only creep into the kitchen to sneakily taste the sweets with cinnamon and pretend like it never happened.

"Where's Clint ?" Pepper finally asked, when Jane and Darcy had come over from Norway, for the Holidays. Selvig was spending it with his family, in Sweden.

"I don't know, in his room ?" Betty answered, as she and Bruce were taking care of baking something that looked and smelled delicious. Pepper rolled her eyes, and Tony looked up from the iPad he was currently playing with (something about a bird game he couldn't let go off), and Pepper sighed.

"Steve, d'you mind going up and see what he's doing ? Thor's going to come anytime now, and he's behaving like a child," she asked, with a smile, as she pulled back a strand of her hair, behind her ear. Steve nodded, and as he got up from the couch (and the usual Disney cartoons that played every year, close to Christmas) and took the elevator up to Clint's room. As he knocked on the door, he heard some chuckling on the other side of the door, and as he heard the "Come in !" he was expecting everything but Clint and Natasha sitting in front of Clint's television screen watching wrestling. He frowned.

"Hey, aren't you coming down ? Pepper says Thor's gonna be here any minute, and-" he paused, looking for his words, as the two spies turned their attention to him. "Just come down and enjoy the holiday spirit ?" he asked, a frown on his face.

"Nah, I don't see what the fuss is about," Clint answered, as he pressed play again on the video, and Steve noticed it was one of the vintage matches.

"Christmas is about being together and celebrating the end of the year with friends and families," Steve went on, trying to blur out the commentary from the video. Natasha rolled her eyes.

"I haven't celebrated Christmas since I was in the circus, Steve, and frankly I haven't missed it," Clint blurted out as a response. Sure, Steve knew that Clint didn't do birthday or Christmas or New Year's or Easter or anything else for that matter, but … he just really wanted them to come down and spend some time with everybody.

Natasha smiled weakly before giving an elbow blow at Clint's ribcage. "What did you do that for ?" he barked, as he turned his eyes towards her. Steve shook his head, not understanding.

"Come on, Barton, the sweets aren't all that bad," she told him, with a mischievous blink of an eye. "Get up from your fat ass and walk down there with me," she stated, as she got up herself, and turned to face Steve.

"Don't worry Cap', I'm bringing him down to everybody," Natasha added, quickly, dismissing Steve.

The Captain went downstairs again, and went straight for Pepper. "They're coming down," he said, looking most proud. Pepper smiled, gleeful.

"Great ! That way, we'll be ten, that should be enough for secret Santa."

Steve smiled. "Oh, that's why you wanted them down here, wasn't it ? Not because of Thor coming." She nodded at him, before going for some scissors which were laying on the table, and cutting out a piece of paper into nine pieces, to write each of their names down.

Clint and Natasha followed soon enough, Clint looking more grumpy than anything, but when he saw the sweets, and Bruce moved out of the way of the oven, he suddenly lost the grumpy look at went straight for the biscuits. He then plopped down next to Tony and eyed the screen of the tablet, frowning, wondering what he was playing. Natasha went over to Pepper, Betty and Jane (Darcy was trying to get Steve's attention by now).

However, when a heavy thunderstroke hit the tower, making JARVIS state that "Thor has arrived, sir," everybody stopped what they were doing, and darted for the elevators. Everybody, except Clint and Tony who were arguing over which technique would be the easiest to get a new high score on that stupid Flappy bird game that Tony had downloaded on everybody's phones and other mobile devices.


End file.
